You are going to read a newspaper article on education. Read the text and answer the questions that follow. Decide whether each statement is True or False and provide your arguments drawn from the text to justify your choice. The proof should be given in your own words.
Jon Gore, now 25, was not diagnosed with dyslexia (a slight disorder of the brain that causes difficulty in reading and spelling, for example, but does not affect intelligence) until after he’d struggled through French and German classes at school. “I always found the written part of it particularly hard,” he says. “It’s almost like a mental block when it comes to thinking what it is I need to say. I struggle with that in English, so when it comes to French and German, it’s exacerbated.”
Every year thousands of language learners struggle with the additional challenge of a learning disability. In England alone, there are more than 229,000 school students with special education needs (Sen), with many going on to successfully take qualifications in French, Spanish and German.
Sen covers a wide range of learning disabilities, from mild dyslexia to severe, non-verbal autism. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach for teaching languages to Sen students,” says Wilson, a special needs teacher. “You have to look for the strengths rather than worrying too much about the weaknesses.”
Dr Judit Kormos of the University of Lancaster says teaching methods should be adapted for dyslexic students, rather than taking them out of language classes. “Dyslexic students can learn another language quite successfully and they have to be given a chance. The teacher just needs to be aware of the dyslexia and teach slightly differently: much more visually, acting things out and explaining things a bit more explicitly than they would to other students. Some people are more receptive to audio channels of learning, others to visual, so using a combination of the two can be really effective.”
Gore agrees, saying that learning methods held him back before he was diagnosed. “I’ve learned languages since being diagnosed with dyslexia,” he says. “I learnt quite a bit of Spanish last year when I went travelling. I learnt far more in a far shorter period of time than I ever did with French or German in school, just because I had to listen and repeat it far more. If my school lessons had been taught with less reading and writing, I think I would have been able to pick up far more. I think the teaching format held me back more than my actual dyslexia.”
“I have found that dyslexic students often lack confidence and self-esteem,” says Kormos. “But they have to be convinced that, yes, they can do it and they can be successful. You also need to think about what it is they want the language for – many people want to learn a language for speaking, but not so much for writing. I have seen many, many successful students who can speak well, even if they can’t write brilliantly. And in this modern world, we do speak a lot and we have spell-checkers and apps that recognise what you’re trying to type. So I think you can set slightly different goals for dyslexic students, in terms of what they need to achieve.”
Dr Margaret Crombie agrees, suggesting that the written side of language learning can be played down if a dyslexic student is struggling. “Let them enjoy the language. Don’t take away the written word, but maybe don’t assess them in it. It can be a very stressful experience if you’re struggling with it and it can knock your confidence.”
Crombie runs the Languages Without Limits website with former teacher Hillary McColl and has written extensively about dyslexia in language learning. “Multi-sensory teaching techniques are particularly effective for dyslexic students,” she says. “Slowing down the language helps as well. Slow it down for the learning stage, and once they become familiar with the language, and then speed it up.”
1-5. Choose whether the statements are True (T) or False (F) and, to justify your choice, provide your proof from the text in your own words.
Example : (0) The statement is true because the narrator has never read a single book in the original and has not demonstrated any interest in the subject.
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1. The process of learning second and third languages cannot reveal students’ disabilities that have been hidden.
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2. Learning disabilities are widespread and they stop students from acquiring qualifications in languages.
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3. To include dyslexic students in the learning process, all the teacher needs is slightly adapt the course to their needs, based on their strong points.
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4. Jon Gor’s difficulty in learning languages stemmed from the effective teaching approach his former teachers applied.
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5. It can be drawn from the text that successful writing skills are not necessarily of primary importance to present day language students.
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